Hebrews Chapter Nine, Putting Away Sin

 

Hebrews 9:25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—[26] He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

 

Before beginning to unfold this passage, here is what the Roman Catholic Church says about the once for all sacrifice of Christ in what they refer to as Mass:

 

The Mass is the Sacrifice of the New Law in which Christ, through the ministry of the priest, offers Himself to God in an unbloody manner under the appearances of bread and wine.

 

The Mass is both a sacrifice and a sacred meal because it is an unbloody representation of the sacrifice of the Cross; in application of its sacred power, the Lord is immolated in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

 

Thus the Mass does not re-crucify Christ. It perpetuates His one sacrifice that stands outside of time. God cannot be killed and when His humanity died in the Person of Jesus Christ on Good Friday such an event must break through the confines of time if God is truly eternal and infinite.

 

The Mass is classed as a sacrament (an outward sign of an internal truth or experience) because the Eucharist is received within each Mass. The Mass is also classed as a sacrifice, as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is made present and true each time the Eucharist is celebrated.

 

(Quotes taken from AFC.org and EWTN.com)

Conversely, Scripture states that Christ made one offering for sin, one sacrifice for Himself for all people, and all time. He offered Himself to God but once. Unbloody, under the appearance of bread and wine, or immolated rather than crucified, the Mass represents a heterodoxical abrogation to this passage, superceding it with a return to a never ending series of sacrifices that, like the Jewish offerings of yore, can NEVER remit sin. By the very definition of the Mass, it is unbloody; yet sin is only remitted and grace received by shed blood, Hebrews 9:22.

 

What of John chapter 6? We recall the ultimate purpose of John’s gospel, explained by the apostle himself, was this: “but these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name,” John 20:31. When John recapitulates his purpose for the gospel, it is to inspire faith in Christ, which endows the recipient with eternal life. Similarly, that was how his gospel also began, John 1:12, 13.

 

John chapter 6 is sometimes addressed because of our Lord’s mention that He is the bread of life, and whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, John 6:54. But what does He mean? Let’s examine a few verses.

 

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst,” John 6:35.

 

Instead of eating and drinking, we have coming and believing. By doing these things, we shall not be hungry or thirsty again. Jesus our Lord clarifies the vast difference between literal, physical eating and drinking, and coming and believing. He tells the Jews that their ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died despite that. Conversely, Jesus is the bread that if one were to eat, they would never go hungry again. This does not imply a continual, physical act, as in the Roman sacrament, but by coming to Christ in faith and placing our trust solely in Him as Savior. He used very similar wordage with the woman at the well when He told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life,” John 4:13, 14.

 

There is the act of physicallly partaking in something, and the act of believing in Someone. In John chapter 4 Jesus intimates clearly that once we have drunken this water, it wells up in to everlasting life; a one time event that creates in us a neverending supply of the spiritual elements that bestows life: the Son of God. That is why Jesus begins by saying man’s spiritual hunger will be satisfied in Him; man’s spiritual thirst will likewise be met in Him. He continues this point by emphasizing, “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe,” John 6:36. Our Lord accentuates faith as the criterion for eating and drinking. Mankind is spiritually ravenous, and our Lord provides nourishment that eternally sustains.

 

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life,” John 6:40, 47.

 

Jesus reveals that the Father’s will is that everyone seeing the Son believes that He is the Savior will have, as a present and permanent gift, eternal life. He emphasizes this by telling us, “most assuredly.” Oxford defines assurance as, “a positive declaration intended to give confidence; a promise.” Jesus is giving a promise that what he is telling His audience (including us) is true. Do we believe Him? “I say to you,” He continues. Invoking the authority natively His due to His divinity, Jesus need not say, “Thus says the Lord”; He is the Lord, so He speaks with natural authority. What does He say? That whoever believes in Him has everlasting life. If we trust that Jesus is our Savior, no more sacrifice is necessary. There need be no Mass, no further effort, no continuation of perpetuating the Lord’s vicarious death on the cross. Like the Jewish offerings on the altar, it is pointless and offensive.

 

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life,” John 6:63.

 

Our Lord elevates His sermon to the spiritual, removing it from the carnal thoughts of His immediate audience. The flesh profits nothing. Partaking of Christ after the flesh profits nothing. If we believe the Eucharist avails us anything, it puts the recipient in the same position as the Jewish worshiper of long ago that thought their sacrifice merited them God’s grace. It did not; neither does the Mass. The flesh and blood Jesus referred to clearly possesses a spiritual meaning; the meaning being believing in Him for life. The ultimate idea, it seems, is that Jesus wanted His people to consume His words, which were spirit and life. If they truly consumed them, like they so desperately wanted to consume bread, they would have received the bread of life. The Holy Spirit imputes life; the flesh profits nothing. This is what is meant by entering into God’s rest, Hebrews 4:3.

 

The apostle Paul summarizes this thought brilliantly when he writes, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,” Philippians 3:3. Of course Paul doesn’t have confidence in the flesh; that implies human effort mingling with divine grace. Does the Mass qualify? Definitely. It is a work, because it involves incremental gain toward the ultimate end of procuring life: something God said was a gift of His grace. Not of our faithful conduct, but His faithful character. A text stressing this point is Exodus 20:25, “And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.”

 

Unlike how the high priest entered the Most Holy Place yearly with another’s blood to atone for Israel’s sin (himself included), Jesus appeared “once at the end of the ages.” Why did our Lord appear this once, at the end, or consummation (NASB), of the ages? To put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Even here, with this second portion of verse 26, we find an elegantly simple rebuttal to any need for further human effort to expunge sin, or merit grace. Christ expunged sin, once for all, by the sacrifice of Himself in a real space/time historical event on Calvary. The issue of sin is finished forever. The one question, the single question that separates man from God, and man from the Lake of Fire, is who they believe Jesus Christ is. The tragedy of the Mass is that it robs the partaker of truly coming to terms with their need of accepting the Lord as their personal Savior, replacing Him with one that, through the ordination of priest-craft, they are acquiring step by step. Hebrews 10:2, God willing we reach it, relates that if such craft was genuinely efficacious, it would need to be done but once to purify the worshiper. By its never-ending procession for all people and for hundreds of years reveals its inadequacy and fraudulence.

 

This passage, taken with verse 24, provides the historicity of the death of Christ on the cross and the succession of one-time events that followed, culminating in His triumph over sin and death, and leading captivity captive into Heaven and the Father’s presence. The Roman Catholic Church posits: “It perpetuates His one sacrifice that stands outside of time.” Yet the language in the passage does not suggest, much less commend, the notion of a perpetual sacrifice. This is purely speculative interpolation on the part of the Roman Church. The Bible, however, states that “It is finished,” John 19:30. Christ appeared already in the presence of God on our behalf. He did not—and will not—offer Himself over and over again to the Father. Unlike the high priest descended from Aaron, who was never free from the perpetual offerings symbolzied in the Day of Atonment, Jesus atoned once for sin through the sacrifice of Himself. Otherwise, we are informed, He would need to suffer often since the foundation of the world, which He has not, as the passage infers by concluding that consideration with “but now.” Those two small words bring the reader into reality. Christ did what the high priest could never do. Today, Jesus does what the high priests of Rome can never do: He gives eternal life to those who simply believe.